Twist
by the Zoshi
Summary: Rating for later on... Well, it takes a look at Slytherin life during the books, through the eyes of a girlOC alert!DISCONTINUED
1. The Invitation

Title: Twist (no real reason for it, might be changed later)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Harry Potter books, or anything else from the books, for that matter. I just occasionally kidnap them. My ideas are my own, though, so no touch.

A.N.: w00t. My first HP fanfic that I'm posting. (Yes! The horror! And to think that I've actually had more! Gasp!)

 E-Gads! People will read this and write things such as "You Mary-Sue you!" "EVVVILLLL AUTHOR!" But I promise you, I will make it as un-Mary-Sue-ish as possible. I will. I hate it when characters get thrown into stories and are all-powerful and such and can do all these great things (one reason Harry ticks me off, even if he IS the main character/hero of the books.)

So, yes, bear with me, tell me what you think. Please. R&R will be appreciated greatly. And flames too. Its cold in this computer room, dammit…

***

Even before the letter from Hogwarts came, delivered by a large tawny owl, Caranora knew she was different. Her parent's having died before she could begin to remember them, she had been raised by an elderly couple by the name's of Mr. and Mrs. Smithe. The household was pleasant, although there always seemed to be an air of secrecy. Often it was that Caranora would walk into a room and the two Smithe's would stop talking suddenly, turning to smile at her pleasantly. She put these instances out of her mind, along with the times that she had somehow made the neighbor's cat turn purple.

       They lived together in a small two family house in Chicago. The street they lived on was called Oakley, and it wasn't far from a grade school where Caranora was attending classes. That is, until the letter came.

       The Smithe's did not seem especially surprised at the letter, and though a bit shaken, they seemed genuinely pleased.

       "Well, Caranora, dear, this is exciting," Mrs. Smithe said, smiling at her. "Do you know what this means?"

       The 11-year-old girl thought hard, what did it mean? The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The girl had never heard anything like this before.

       "that I'm going to learn how to cut people in half and put them back together?" She supplied hopefully.   
       The fox in the corner snickered.

       "Well…" Both Mr. and Mrs. Smithe chuckled at this. " Not quite. This letter you received shows that you have the power for magic. You will be learning spells."

       "Real spells?" Caranora asked, surprised.

       "Yes, real spells." Mrs. Smithe smiled.

       "But… how do you know about this?" Caranora asked, puzzled.

       The Smithe's exchanged looks. They had been in their 50's when they had agreed to take care of this girl, and had known all along that this moment would come.

       "When we were younger, we had children who went to Hogwarts." The elderly couple said.

       "Oh." Caranora said, surprised. She had never heard of the Smithe's having other children. "What happened to them?"

       "They died, on an important mission." Mr. Smithe said gently. This saddened Caranora, but then Mrs. Smite saw this and spoke.

       "Don't worry about that child. We are very proud of what they did." Mrs. Smithe smiled reassuringly. "You should go start getting ready, you only have a week left before you go."

       "Really?!" Caranora exclaimed, and quickly bounded up the stairs to her room.

       The fox followed her.

       A few days later, Mr. Smithe brought out a box. It was longer than it was wide, and had a red and black emblem on it. The emblem was in the shape of a shield, and was divided into quarters. The top left quarter had three black diamonds on a red field, the top right a red cockatrice on a black field, the bottom left one another red cockatrice on a black field (although this cockatrice looked different), and the last quarter a big black spade on a red field.

       Mr. Smithe handed it to Caranora, who opened the box slowly. Inside, on pieces of yellow tinged red crepe paper lay a length of wood.

       "What is this?" Caranora asked, picking it up. The wood gave off a cold, comforting feeling. It was as familiar to her as her own arms and legs, although she had never seen it before in her life.

       "That, Caranora, is a wand." Mr. Smithe said. "The man who brought you to us said it used to be your mother's, and would one day be yours."

       "Wow…" Caranora held the wand carefully. Her mother's wand, the only thing connecting her to her parents.

       "Well, give it a try, dear, flick it around." Mrs. Smithe said, looking on expectantly. The girl followed her suggestion, and was amazed at the result.

       A spray of red, black, and silver sparkles shot out of the tip of her wand.

       The fox by her feet hopped up, mouth open, trying to catch one of the flickers of light.

       Caranora laughed at it, but only shortly, and quickly turned to Mr. and Mrs. Smithe.

       "This is wonderful, its… its amazing." She breathed.

       "Its yours." Mr. Smithe said.

       The day before she left, the Smithe's took Caranora to a place called The Rook. She was fitted for her robes, then got her books and supplies. Passing a shop, Caranora looked in the window and gasped.

       "What are all those animals doing there?" She asked, pressing her face against the glass. Owls were sitting sleepily in cages, and a group of rats in a cage were playing leapfrog.

       "Those are pets that young, and old, wizards and witches get as familiars." Mrs. Smithe said, "Come, lets get you one."

       Caranora followed her inside, looking around in wonder.

       "Well, what do you like?" Mrs. Smith asked. "There are owls, rats, cats, toads…"

       Caranora was reluctant to pick from what she saw. The owls were nice, but not exactly what she wanted, and cats… maybe. She looked at the toads, and decided against one. It was then that something caught her eye.

       A white rat sat in the corner of the cage, ignored by the other rats. Caranora felt a pang of sympathy for the rat, and she crossed over to the cage and picked him up. The rat sat in her hand, scared for a few moments. It looked up at her, blinked its red-pink eyes.

       "I'll take him," She said. 

       The fox jumped onto the counter, then onward to a pole, from which hung a cage containing a big, inky black raven.

       Caranora looked after it, and gasped.

       "Can I have him too?" She asked.

       "Well…" Mrs. Smithe seemed reluctant, but Mr. Smith nudged her encouragingly. "I guess, if you really want it."

       "Excuse me, sir," Mr. Smithe said, asking the man behind the counter, "Will a raven carry mail?"

       "'Course," The man said, "'Specially if it likes its owner. Damn loyal birds, ravens."

       "We'll take him," Mr. Smithe said.

***

So, yes, chapter 2 will be up… lets see, Sunday? Monday? Whenever I get my lazy ass off of comic sites and message boards to do it? Yeah, that seems right. ^-^ Please R&R, it will be greatly appreciated. Thankies.


	2. The Ride

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe is not mine. Although I do admit to locking Blaise and Draco in my closet. And duct taping their mouths shut. And… okay I'll stop there.

No one replied. Thank you. You all make me feel so special. 

And yet, the story is here. Strange… for all of you who are waiting on other fanfics, let me tell you that this was ready at the same time as Chapter 1, and that's why its going up. NO I did not write this in the past few days. I can't even write my English paper and you expect me to write fanfics? Okay, so you do, but still… blerk, I'm not getting out of this one, am I?

Anyways, enjoy.

Chapter 2, with no title, since I didn't really divide it into chapters when I was writing. Hence the strangeness of it.

And so it was that Caranora climbed onto the Silver Fang, a connecting train to the Hogwarts express, with Rinaldi, her white rat, in her pocket, and Poe, her raven, in his cage under her arm.

          The ride to London passed quickly. She had decided to try to get a nap in, but it seemed to her that no sooner had she closed her eyes she had to open them again.

          "Boy, that was fast," She commented to the porter.

          "Silver Fang's da quickest train dere is." The porter replied in an amazingly strong Chicago accent. "Powered by some sorta powerful magic."

          "Oh… thanks…" Caranora said. She wondered if people in London would think that her accent was strong.

          Stepping out of the train, she found herself on a platform.

          "Just wait dere, da Agwerts Express'll be her in fifteen minutes." The porter called after her, and closed the door. There was a hum, and suddenly the Silver Fang shot off.

          Caranora looked around timidly. Her trunk and bags were standing to the left of her. Looking the other way she saw a few people standing on the far end of the platform.

          She set Poe's cage onto the ground and sat down on the trunk. Rinaldi stirred in his sleep in her breast pocket, and she patted him gently.

          The fox passed by, sniffing the ground curiously as it went.

          "Hey, did you come here on that silver train?" 

          Caranora turned to see a black haired boy standing a few feet away from her. He looked to be about her age. She was a little taken aback, having never really had much contact with other kids. The ones back in her old school always left her alone and wouldn't talk to her.

          "Uh… yeah…" She replied, a little nervously. "I… came from Chicago."

          "Really?" The boy was surprised. He stepped closer. "Well, I'm Blaise Zabini."

          "Er… Caranora Smithe." She shook the hand he offered her.

          "All the way from Chicago, huh?" Blaise looked at her. "I heard that they closed the American school down for a few years, but I thought they'd send people to Canada or something."

          Caranora shrugged. Poe rustled his wings, gave out a loud caw. Blaise looked around, spotted the cage. He crouched down in front of it.

          "Whoa… a crow?" He said.

          "A raven…" Caranora corrected him. "His…his name is Poe."

          "Nice name." Blaise said, then stood up. He looked over at her. "Nice bird, too. I had to get a ruddy barn owl."

          He pointed behind him, and Caranora saw another pushcart standing there, laden with trunks and bags, and on top sitting a large cage. A dirty-brown colored owl sat in it, and gave out a morose hoot when it met her gaze.

          "Its… nice…" She said. Blaise grimaced.

          "I wanted a Great Horned, Eeylops had a huge silver gray one, but," And here he scrunched up his face and made his voice squeak. "An owl is an owl, Blaise, and as long as it flies and carries mail, its good enough."

          Caranora laughed at his imitation, and he joined her.

          "Grandmum," He explained after they had stopped laughing. "My mum and dad are off on business, and now Grandmum is too old and tired to wait for the train with me, so I'm all alone." Blaise looked over at her. "What about you?"

          "Hm? Oh… well…" Caranora fidgeted a little. "I… don't know who my parents were. I was raised by two old Squibs, but they didn't tell me anything about the Wizarding world until a few weeks ago."

          "Really?" Blaise looked at her surprised, then chuckled. "Seems I have a lot to teach you then."

          Caranora looked at him, surprised herself. He grinned at her, and she smiled back timidly.

          Just then a loud hoot broke through the air, and both of them turned to see a large red steam engine pull in with its load of cabins.

          "Come on!" Blaise said, motioning for her to grab her things and taking hold of his own. "Lets make sure we get some good seats."

          They hurried onto the train and grabbed a cabin. Caranora sat down near the window, and Blaise sat down across from her.

          "So…" He started, looking at her as if inspecting her. "You have no idea who your parents were?"

          "No, none." Caranora said. She sat there for a second, then reached over toe her small bag and pulled out the box containing her wand. "Well, I do have this. It used to belong to my mom… or at least they say so."

          "Wow…" Blaise took the box from her and looked at it. "This looks familiar… but I don't know why."

          The fox stood on the seat next to him, also looking at the box.

          Blaise handed the box back to her, and she set it down next to her on the seat.

          There was a moment of silence, during which Blaise fidgeted a little and Caranora stared out the window.

          Suddenly the door to the cabin slammed open, making both of them jump in their seats. They turned to look at the door just as a large boy walked in.

          "Oh, its you." He grunted at Blaise, and settled down on part of the seat.

          "Nice to see you too, Goyle." Blaise said, although a sneer started to curl his lips.

          There was a flurry of words outside, and another large boy stumbled into the cabin. He tripped over one of Goyle's outstretched legs, and almost fell on Caranora. Muttering a 'sorry', he had a strangely surprised look on his face as he sat down on the far end of the seat.

          The next boy to enter wasn't anywhere near as big as the first two. He had a pale, pointed face, icy gray eyes, and blond hair that was slicked back severely. He gave a quick look around the room, his eyes settling on Blaise finally. He smiled, and although Caranora thought it seemed a little more like a smirk than a true smile, it seemed genuine enough.

          "Blaise." The boy said in way of greeting.

          "Draco." Blaise grinned at him, and Caranora relaxed when she realized that the two must be friends.

          But now the blond, Draco, looked at her, and she felt herself shrink under his gaze. She wasn't used to attention, especially from people she didn't know.

          "And, you are…?" The boy asked, but Caranora found herself at loss for words. Thankfully, Blaise didn't.

          "This is Caranora Smithe," Blaise said, standing up. He gave her an encouraging smile. "Caranora, this is Draco Malfoy, currently my so-called best friend."

          Blaise gave him a suspicious look out of the corner of his eye, and Draco glared back at him. After a moment both laughed, and Blaise sat back down in his place.

          Draco, in the meantime, had noticed the box containing Caranora's wand.

          "Is this yours?" He asked, picking it up. The girl nodded as he looked over the emblem. "Looks familiar…"

          "Doesn't it?" Blaise asked, leaning forward and looking annoyed. "But I can't figure out why…"

          Draco shrugged, and opened the box. He pulled out the wand and looked at it thoughtfully.

          "Looks nice…" He started to say, but suddenly the wand gave out an angry hiss and shot out red-hot sparks. He dropped it in alarm and surprise. "What the…?"

          Caranora blushed slightly as she bent down to retrieve the wand.

          "That's… its… well, it's never done that before." She said, giving him an apologetic look. "But then again, you're the only other person to touch it."

          Draco was looking at the wand with a mixture of surprised, wonder, and annoyance. Blaise leaned forward in his seat and took the wand.

          "Let me see…" As he held it, it began to hiss and spark again, but he didn't let go. "This is actually getting… hot."

          He tossed it to Caranora, who caught it reflexively. She had feared burning herself, but the moment the wand touched her hand the hissing stopped and it cooled down. Goyle and the other big boy sat there staring at the wand, a little scared.

          "That's strange…" Blaise said. The train gave a sudden jerk, and he glanced outside. "Moving, finally."

          "What's your wand made of?" Draco asked, setting the box back down and sitting down next to Blaise.

          "Lets see if I can remember…" Caranora said quietly. Mr. Smithe had told her what was in it. "There used to be a paper with it, but it got lost… okay, its (and here she recited exactly as Mr. Smithe had told her) 8 ½ inch, ebony, with a hair form the mane of a Nightmare."

          Blaise whistled appreciatively.

          "Now that's something… They were always really rare, but it's said the last herd was destroyed…" He thought for a second, "How long ago again."

          "6 years." Draco said, but his voice was a little shaky. They turned to see that his already pale face had blanched to stone white.

          "Draco? Are you all right?" Blaise asked.

          "I'm fine." Snapped back the blond, then leaned back in the seat and crossed his arms. All through that time though, Caranora never saw his eyes stray from her wand. She turned to Blaise.

          "Why were the Nightmares destroyed?" She asked, intrigued. Before Blaise had time to open his mouth, Draco had leaned forward again.

          "You don't know?" He asked, a little harshly, though thoroughly shocked to discover she didn't know.

          "No." Caranora squeaked.

          "The Nightmares were rampaging." Draco said. "They'd run around and destroy any bloody thing they could get their teeth on."

          "They'd gone mad," Blaise added, nodding, "There was talk that the person who controlled them had been killed, so they were out for revenge."

          "Well, that can't be that bad…" Caranora started, looking closer at her wand. She looked up to see everyone giving her shocked looks. "The revenge, I mean… If someone killed their master, they have the right to go out there… and… yeah…"

          Caranora fell silent. She had never really spoken her mind out like that to anyone before, and had expected them all to look at her as if she was a little off her rocker. But, though they all looked mildly surprised, both Blaise and Draco seemed pleased.

          "Can't blame them, hm?" Blaise grinned.

          The door opened suddenly, and two girls walked in. Caranora saw a grimace pass over both Blaise's and Draco's faces, but then quickly disappear as they turned to the girls. She also turned to look at them. Both were larger than her, and one had a definite, pug-shaped nose. It was this girl that squealed loudly when she saw Draco, and plopped herself down next to him, ignoring everyone else. Blaise rolled her eyes as she began to speak.

          "Draco! This is where you were hiding." The girl exclaimed. "Oh, I would have found you sooner, but Daddy said we had to take a taxi! Can you believe it? He wanted **me**, his one and only daughter, to get in a car, non-magical, with some muggle driver! I told him that there was absolutely no way I would be going to the station in some taxi! Said he didn't have the time to…"

          "Hullo, Millicent." Blasie said loudly over the other girl's chatter.

          "Hullo yourself." Millicent replied bitterly. She glanced at Caranora, then sat down next to her and extended a hand. "Millicent Bullstrode."

          "Uh…" Caranora took her hand. "Caranora Smithe."

          "She's from Chicago!" Blaise leaned forward, away from the deafening chatter.

          "What?" Draco looked over. He was obviously not paying much attention to the other girl's chatter and desperately looking for a way out of it. "You didn't tell me that."

          "Forgot." Blaise shrugged.

          "Forgot, right…' Draco said.

          The other girl had stopped her talking, looking quite annoyed at having been interrupted. She looked at Blaise as if seeing him there for the first time.

          "Oh… Hello Blaise." She said simply.

          "Hello Pansy." Blaise replied sweetly. She glared at him for a moment.

          During this time, Millicent had tapped Caranora in the side and leaned over to whisper in her ear.

          "Don't introduce yourself and you won't have to listen to her…" She advised, and Caranora nodded.

          Instead of introducing herself, she pulled out _The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)_, and started reading it, pretending to be absorbed. When she next glanced up, the chatter had started again. She saw that Millicent had followed suit with a book. Blaise had his forehead pressed against the glass of the window, his eyes unfocused. Draco was doing his best to keep his participation in the conversation with Pansy to a minimum. Goyle and the other boy (Crabbe, she learned form Millicent), were sitting by the door, and were the first up when the food cart rolled by.

End Not: Please R&R. I'll give you cookies and ice cream cake if you do. If you don't, you'll have my cat boy's at your place shredding your window treatments and trashing your sock drawers.


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